Out for Eid shopping, youth dies, four friends injured after car falls into canal

Greater Noida: A 19-year-old man died and four of his friends were injured after the car they were travelling in fell into a canal in Dadri area of Greater Noida early on Monday. Preliminary investigation suggests the driver of the car may have fallen asleep behind the wheel.
Police said all five of them lived in Sikandrabad (Bulandshahr district) and were returning from Delhi after shopping for Eid festival.
Chand (19) – who was driving the car -- died in the accident, and Mohammad Saad (21), Sarim (24), Asif (18) and Zeeshan (18) were treated for minor injuries.
“We received information about the incident around 5 am following which team was rushed to the spot. It was found that a Maruti Suzuki Swift car had fallen into the Court Canal and five people were travelling in it. Chand drowned but locals managed to rescue others and took them to a hospital," a senior officer at the Dadri police station said.
The five of them had come to Delhi on Sunday night to shop near Jama Masjid for Eid. They left the Capital to go back home around 4am.
“When they were crossing Dadri, Chand – a car mechanic who was behind the wheel -- allegedly fell asleep. The car rammed the railing of the canal and toppled into it,” the officer said.
Police said they have not received a complaint so far. The four injured in the accident were also discharged from a private hospital in Dadri later in the day.
Chand’s body has been sent for a post mortem and the other four left back for their home, he added.
According to official data, around 2,000 people lost their lives in nearly 4,600 road accidents in Gautam Budh Nagar in the last five years. Of this, nearly 370 people died in 798 crashes just last year in the district. Despite thin traffic due to Covid-induced lockdown for months in 2020, the district reported 745 accidents with 380 fatalities. The year 2017 saw almost 1,000 accidents, in which 423 people died and another 892 were injured.